THUY NGUYEN TRAN
Cosmetology in Pittsburgh, PA

5826060, Oct 20, 1998

Apr 4, 1996

8/628586

Linda L. Santoline - South Park PA
Louis W. Gaussa - Penn Township PA
Robert A. Shemony - Westmoreland PA
Deborah D. Broderick - Apollo PA
Thuy T. Tran - Pittsburgh PA

Westinghouse Electric Corporation - Pittsburgh PA

G06F 1546

395500

A simulator for a distributed process control system utilizes a simulator station as an interface between a plant modeling computer and an instrumentation and control system which uses actual distributed processing units (DPUs) running actual process control software. The simulator station memory maps sensor signals received from the plant modeling computer through reflective memory directly to a memory-mapped input/output (I/O) interface of each DPU at the scan rate, or a multiple of the scan rate, of the DPU, and provides the control signals generated by the DPUs to the plant modeling computer at the same rates. A data highway such as in the actual system provides communications between the DPUs and between the DPUs and operator stations, (and potentially other man-machine interface stations) which provide operator signals used by the DPUs. The simulator station is also connected to the operator stations by the data highway for receiving the operator signals which can include signals controlling simulator operation.